Seeing Stars

  They lay in an exhausted sweaty heap, not moving until Ren propped his head up on one hand and said to them both, “Well, that was interesting. What next?”

  “Attach her cuffs to something that will stop her being able to leave the room,” Dom replied abruptly as he raised himself from the bed and looked straight at Kate. “You are GEF born, bred and trained. You are as headstrong as you are foolish and frankly you terrify me. I have no intention of letting you jump ship before we assess how safe things are out there for you.”

  He was worried about her safety?

  It would seem that being an intergalactic love slave was to be her toughest assignment yet.

  Chapter Eleven

  The negotiation party arrived, and their very first demand was to see Katherine Thorn. Their second demand was an answer to the question of why she was still in the personal custody of Lord Dominic Danyeo and Rennick Stannick and had not been released into a provisional informal custody on a neutral boundary world as had previously been requested.

  It was a request that had been made a week ago.

  Dominic Danyeo had sat sprawled in his chair at the table, resplendent in his black and grey battle dress looking every inch the indolent ruler of several lawless galaxies.

  Kate sat primly next to him in her Port Luz warehouse overalls trying to look like someone who had known all along that she was not actually supposed to be on board his ship.

  “Maybe it would be for the best if Thorn was released into our custody now, whilst we are aboard…”

  “No.” Danyeo’s response was brief and to the point. The accompanying grin was as humourless as an arctic rim cat’s legendary smile just before it pounced, and if anything, colder. “I don’t think so.”

  “What we had thought was that such a highly qualified pilot as Captain Thorn may well prove a substantial addition to our crew,” Ren said.

  “You mean screw,” a smart-mouthed negotiator from the GEF delegation muttered so quietly, Kate scarcely heard him.

  Dom Danyeo did not even raise an eyebrow, but the man who had spoken was immediately surrounded by heavily-armed security officers.

  “It is hardly my job to remind you where you are,” Danyeo informed him, his face wearing a deceptively lazy smile, “but I would ask that you do not refer to Captain Thorn in any terms other than those of the utmost respect.”

  The negotiator flushed bright red and pulled at the collar of his white ornate GEF jacket as if it was suddenly too tight for him and sat back in his seat, glowering at Kate as he did so.

  It did not seem possible, but the negotiations spiralled ever downwards from that point. The main thrust of their argument seemed to be that Kate could only be of value to the Rim contingent due to her detailed working knowledge of the Galaxy Elite Fleet, and as such holding her was a direct act against the ISS as it put the security of the Fleet at risk.

  Kate had almost forgotten how she much she hated sitting at a table with high level negotiators.

  Not that Lord Dominic Danyeo or his legal counsel Rennick Stannick were in any way outdone. Both had moved on from pretending to cooperate on a few of the points presented to them regarding her return, to point blank refusal across the board.

  To say by the end of the first day that there was an impasse in the proceedings would have been a gross understatement. Kate simply wished they would decide quickly between them what they wanted to do one way or the other so she could start to deal with things in her head. The first being how on earth she was going to walk away from Dominic Danyeo and Rennick Stannick. Both men were so in tune with each other that her leaving would be nothing but the merest ripple on their emotional landscape. For Kate it was starting to feel like the end of her world even though there were times when she still felt as if she hardly knew the two of them at all.

  Be careful what you wish for, Kate, she told herself.

  Chapter Twelve

  Well, this was different.

  Kate stood in a room that was remarkably similar to her own. What was not the same was the large chair situated in the middle of it, occupied by a cold-faced, grey-haired man dressed completely in black.

  “What did you say your name was again?” Kate refused the seat, preferring to stand to face the man before her.

  “Calvin Stannick.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows, and had to ask, “Any relation to…?”

  “I am his father.”

  “Does Ren know that you are talking to me?”

  “No.”

  “Does he know you have had me brought here to talk?”

  “Not yet.”

  Kate pulled a small face as she considered the potential ramifications of what she had just been told.

  “And your chief concern is…?”

  “The Rim confederation treaty, the wellbeing of my son and the truce that currently exists between the houses of Danyeo and Stannick.”

  It was like a vidscreen quiz show.

  “Ah.” No one could ever accuse Katherine Thorn of being slow on the uptake, and even Kate could see how she could well be a threat to at least two items he had named on his list.

  “You are concerned that I could be a threat to the Rim confederation treaty if I am not returned immediately.”

  “I am concerned, but it is not that that prompts me to talk to you alone.” Calvin Stannick climbed slowly to his feet and walked across the room to stand before her. Kate could clearly see shades of Ren in his bearing and his mature good looks.

  There was never a substitute for good genetics.

  “Then what does concern you?”

  “That you represent a far greater threat than you could ever understand. Through you a permanent tie could be made between the houses of Danyeo and Stannick. Such an alliance, indeed, even the threat of such an alliance is enough to threaten the lives of Lord Danyeo and my son.”

  Whatever Kate had been expecting to hear, it had not been that.

  “But they are already together.” She rubbed her temples, thinking as she did so that Rim politics made ISS politics look like a parlour game. “I don’t want to shock you, Mr Stannick, but…”

  “I know what they are to each other, Captain Thorn.” Stannick’s face was an impenetrable mask as he regarded her. “I was witness to my son’s incarceration in the outer stockades by rebel elements of the Danyeo family when their relationship was discovered. I also stand in great debt to Dominic and his determination to recover Ren from that awful place. From it has grown a truce between two powerful families, which has enabled us to grow and prosper, Ms Thorn. From it has grown the threat to the ISS and ultimately the GEF. Most within the Rim do not have a problem with that.” Stannick took a deep breath. “What they will have a problem with is you.”

  “Me?” But already Kate could see where this conversation was going.

  “Katherine Thorn, once Captain Katherine Thorn. The Thorn family are the rigid backbone of the Galaxy Elite Fleet, are they not? Is your father not the GEF representative on the main ISS committee?”

  “Is he?” Kate swallowed the irrational lump that rose in her throat whenever mention was made of her father, “I would not know. We are not…close.”

  “I had heard. But the fact remains that your father was instrumental in starting negotiations with the Rim confederation to secure your release.”

  “Make no mistake—it would have been to save his face, Mr Stannick, not my head,” Kate responded tightly.

  “Indeed.” Stannick steepled his hands before him and regarded her with an uncannily familiar set of blue eyes. “Yet the effect is the same. It puts Ren and Dominic in bed with the enemy.”

  The man’s logic was terrifying. “I have been told that my life is at risk if I return to the ISS with the delegation.”

  “I would not be surprised. There are political elements that would use this situation to undermine the Galaxy Elite Fleet as a whole. An alliance with you, of any description, even the threat of an alliance, is enough to get Rennick and Dominic
killed. I cannot allow that. The current head of the Danyeo family, Dominic’s uncle, cannot allow it either. Their alliance is borne, not condoned, Captain Thorn. It has brought great benefits to both families. But the fact remains that you could bring the end of both houses should you deliver trouble to the Rim that results in either one or both heirs being killed. The resulting power vacuum would suit the ambitions of many in the ISS.”

  Kate took a deep breath and said finally, “I did not ask to be arrested, Mr Stannick. I have lost everything and if what you say is true, I’m as much at risk as Lord Danyeo or your son.”

  Calvin Stannick sighed and nodded. “Factions within both the GEF and the Rim are greedy for power. You cannot volunteer to stay without upsetting dangerous, suspicious forces within the Rim and your family would surely not stand by whilst my son and Danyeo flaunt you as their lover. In all honesty, I believe that although my son is slow to come to reason, Lord Danyeo has grasped that fact already.”

  Both men had been strangely subdued when she had seen them earlier.

  “Then I have no choice but to go,” Kate said quietly, “but on one condition. That I leave immediately.” She could not face going back to the cabin. Her heart lurched sickly at the very prospect of coming face to face with either Ren or Dom. She’d never felt the need to say goodbye before, and she didn’t think she could master it in the next few minutes. “Are you able to do that? What will you tell the ISS delegation?”

  “I will simply tell the ISS delegation that you elected to leave this vessel without their escort.”

  Ren and Dom would be furious.

  “Then I’ll go.”

  Calvin Stannick gave a slight bow.

  “A wise decision, Captain Thorn. I will call my man.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was an unfamiliar GEF vessel that came to collect her.

  Kate felt the frisson of danger as soon as she stepped aboard. The entire ship seemed to hum with it. As Kate made her way down the corridor with Calvin Stannick’s escort it was as if everyone stared at her as she walked.

  “Rim whore!”

  Kate jumped as if she had been struck, turning to see the person who had barked the insult at her simply walking away.

  Every face of every person seemed to be looking her way. All regarded at her as if she had done something terribly wrong.

  “This way, Ms Thorn.” Her escort showed her towards the Captain’s quarters. “The Captain will see you straight away.”

  The door opened to reveal a sumptuous set of quarters, far superior to hers aboard the ISS Star. It was a sea of cream and gold. But then this was a Galaxy class cruiser with a far superior specification to that of the Star.

  Kate wondered if the crew on the ISS Star had even noticed that she had gone.

  “For fuck’s sake, Katherine, how could you let it happen?” A petite woman with brass blonde hair strode to the front of the cabin and dismissed Calvin Stannick’s man with a flick of her head. “And you can clear off. Tell Stannick you’ve delivered her as arranged and I’ll see to the rest.” With that her escort scuttled out of the cabin, leaving Kate to her fate.

  “Helena.” It was her sister, Captain Helena Thorn. The meanest, most artificial bitch across several systems and the last person she would ever have wanted to see in this situation. Why did it have to be her?

  “You are a fucking idiot. You should have ended it before it went this far. You know how it goes, death before dishonour, and all that crap.”

  “Are you suggesting I should have killed myself, Helena?” Kate had been not ten minutes out of Rim custody and she was close to ending up in a prison facility for wringing a GEF officer’s neck.

  “Do you know, I honestly think they thought you would do it? The family were so proud of you. Your reputation has spread right the way through the fleet, youngest…”

  “Shut up, Helena.” Kate stopped her sister before she could reel off that long list of now meaningless achievements.

  “That would be Captain Helena Thorn to you.”

  “Wow.” Kate sat without being asked, running her hands over the cream leather upholstery of her chair. “Nice furniture, Nell. Who did you fuck to get it?”

  She then leant back and looked up at the ceiling, “And what is that?”

  Her sister glanced above her head, narrowing her eyes to focus before saying, “A cage…don’t change the subject. Do you have any idea of the trouble you are in? What were you thinking of, screwing two of the first sons of the damn Rim? Only you could have a fucking death wish that wide!”

  “That observation, coming from a woman who has a”—Kate looked one way and then the other—“naked man suspended from her ceiling in a cage, I can only take as a compliment.”

  “I am not a woman. I am a fleet Captain. Something you would have done well to remember before you got yourself into this fucking mess.”

  “Would it make any difference if I told you I never planned it to end like this?”

  “Did you give the command to compromise Danyeo and Stannick?”

  Kate could not even bring herself to nod. “I did it with the best of intentions,” she admitted.

  “Then it’s your fault,” Helena concluded darkly. “You are responsible for the consequences of your actions. It’s a Thorn family motto. You know that. Along with screw them before they can screw you. And now, talking of consequences, I have the problem of what to do with you.”

  Her sister frowned angrily up at her ceiling. “I am hoping you are in the market for some sensible advice. My advice being if you wish to continue to live for much longer, I strongly suggest you retire your links with the Rim Lords, the Galaxy Elite Fleet and the ISS as soon as possible. Then lie low for about ten years.”

  Helena might be a bitch but she was family.

  Kate sighed and said, “I thought you might say that.”

  The Thorn family rarely trusted others. Captain Helena Thorn dumped her sister at the transport hub as arranged yet, insisted Kate was not to touch the papers Calvin Stannick had ready waiting for her. Kate did not need persuading. It did not take too much exposure to Helena’s company for her paranoia to rub off on a person, and Kate used her limited time with Helena’s high level access to the GEF and ISS systems to re-establish herself an identity that would enable her to hide in plain sight on the borders of Rim and ISS space. An identity that Kate knew was secure because she had set it up personally—the last name of Star was common enough amongst the inhabitants of Port Luz and she’d already been there. Always better to amend existing information than create new.

  Kate signed on to work as soon as she arrived in one of the largest hangars within the distribution hub. All she had to do was work, and there was plenty of it about. Pushing carts of Port Luz goods from hangar to hangar for distribution became her life, punctuated only by going back to her cramped cabin as little as possible, and sleeping. Her productivity caught the attention of the hangar manager, simply called Boss, who promoted her into the small team responsible for pulling priority cargoes. She developed a reputation as being the first to volunteer to do an extra shift, the first to offer to step in if someone needed time to do something urgently.

  “Jeez, Katie, don’t you sleep?” someone asked.

  “Not if I can help it.” She smiled back bleakly. Sleep brought dreams.

  The giant vidscreens in the hangars and concourses flickered continuously throughout the day and night shifts. Kate would half-listen to them as she went about her business. Intergalactic spat—woman on Siega 4 with her blue dog—GEF put down unrest on Colony Planet 3. It connected her in a way to her old life. Occasionally familiar words or phrases would filter through to her consciousness as she moved items from ship to hangar and back.

  She was walking backwards, guiding a load piloted by one of her younger female colleagues, Minou.

  Woman on Siega 4 had blue dog stolen—Intergalactic spat resolved—Rim Lord Danyeo attending high level meetings with the Galaxy Elite Fleet over
border dispute—new colony on…

  “He’s a looker,” Minou said as she manhandled the pallet off the transport into the aisle whilst looking up at the vidscreen.

  Kate could only stop and stare at the screen, drinking in the sight of him. Where was Ren? How dare Danyeo look so well, when she was so…thoroughly miserable.

  “Hey, Kate…you okay, girl? You’ve gone pale.”

  Kate nodded, aware of feeling numb.

  “Ladies, have you finished that order? If not, get on with your work,” Boss shouted.

  “You sure you’re okay, girl?” Minou squeezed Kate’s shoulder, concern in her voice.

  “I’m fine.” Kate smiled bracingly. “Never better.”

  She went back to her cabin at the end of her shift and wept.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was a stupid accident.

  One of the docking screens blew out on hangar thirteen because someone had not reset it properly.

  Minou was sucked out. Her vac suit inflated almost immediately as she entered the vacuum of space. Kate did not think, did not hesitate. She was on a safety harness as she had been scaling the cargo above floor level and instinctively lunged for her friend as she shot past. By a chance in a million Kate caught her and both women were thrown out into space beyond the hangar docking port, their progress only slightly slowed when the harness caught and stretched before breaking the cable that attached them to the hangar wall. Kate had hoped that their momentum would not prove too much for the cable. No chance. It would seem she had used up all her luck when she caught Minou on her way out.

  Hell, thought Kate as she held on grimly to a panicking Minou, how could you forget how cold space was, so quickly?